Why not move to Northern Ireland?

It's probably not been an option until now.

Working from home gives us the freedom to live anywhere we want, even the most inhospitable, derelict places, such as Northern Ireland.

House prices in Northern Ireland are at least 25% cheaper than in the Republic. You can earn a southern salary and get an NHS. The cost of living is so much cheaper. The benefits are immense.

We are currently looking at properties in Co. Down, I wonder why more Irish people haven't looked to the North as a convenient, cheaper place to relocate?

Phoebas

It's a different jurisdiction for tax and employment law purposes.

I think a lot of employers might have issues with it.

gomamochi1

A Lamb Named Miltiades! wrote: »

It's probably not been an option until now.

Working from home gives us the freedom to live anywhere we want, even the most inhospitable, derelict places, such as Northern Ireland.

House prices in Northern Ireland are at least 25% cheaper than in the Republic. You can earn a southern salary and get an NHS. The cost of living is so much cheaper. The benefits are immense.

We are currently looking at properties in Co. Down, I wonder why more Irish people haven't looked to the North as a convenient, cheaper place to relocate?

Often thought about it. Wsmas reared in dundalk so crossed border much as a child. Moved back here several years ago and luckily settled now though only a stones throw from the border. Always an option. You are right cost of living v cheap ....as they say there is nothing free about the free state!!

punisher5112

There are plenty of cheap places in the south too.....

The One Doctor

A Lamb Named Miltiades! wrote: »

It's probably not been an option until now.

Working from home gives us the freedom to live anywhere we want, even the most inhospitable, derelict places, such as Northern Ireland.

House prices in Northern Ireland are at least 25% cheaper than in the Republic. You can earn a southern salary and get an NHS. The cost of living is so much cheaper. The benefits are immense.

We are currently looking at properties in Co. Down, I wonder why more Irish people haven't looked to the North as a convenient, cheaper place to relocate?

You want to move to a country that goes through civil war every few decades just to save a couple of quid?

gmisk

A Lamb Named Miltiades! wrote: »

It's probably not been an option until now.

Working from home gives us the freedom to live anywhere we want, even the most inhospitable, derelict places, such as Northern Ireland.

House prices in Northern Ireland are at least 25% cheaper than in the Republic. You can earn a southern salary and get an NHS. The cost of living is so much cheaper. The benefits are immense.

We are currently looking at properties in Co. Down, I wonder why more Irish people haven't looked to the North as a convenient, cheaper place to relocate?

As other people have said the tax and employment law thing could be an issue.
My sister lives in the north and works in the south as a teacher though and no issues since she started a few years back.

Co down has some lovely spots I will say. But like everywhere else you would have to do your research.
I am originally from the glens of Antrim it's a lovely spot but couldn't see myself living their unless I am retired, Belfast or outside it somewhere nice definitely.
Cost of living is definitely less, eating out, groceries etc especially

gmisk

The One Doctor wrote: »

You want to move to a country that goes through civil war every few decades just to save a couple of quid?

Does it? I might have missed the civil wars...I was born there in 1981...

Tbh I would feel a lot safer in NI than most places in ROI

Larbre34

Northern Ireland is fine, apart from the fact its inert, stifling, miserable and unbearably dull.

In the last 20 years, a noticeable gap between the relative wealth of the Republic and the 6 counties has appeared. Lower standard of living, less enterprising culture, fewer opportunities.

In short, there is a reason its cheap to live there.

PS, for those interested in such things, a documentary series, 'The Road to Partition' began 10 mins ago on BBC2.

Phoebas

Phoebas wrote: »

It's a different jurisdiction for tax and employment law purposes.

Not as far as I am aware,

Our salaries will be taxed in Dublin, we need to go there once every two weeks -- max. No problem.

Some parts of the North are stunning. The properties you can buy up here would cost 25% more, as standard. Sometimes they are half the price.

Lads, come up here, the value is nuts.

dxhound2005

Don't forget the very high Property Tax on Family Homes.

Darc19

Hope you don't have children - children's allowance is way way lower.

Hope you don't become unemployed. - Job seekers allowance is about £75

Hope you don't just qualify for basic pension. Way lower too.

And don't forget the rates bill. Even a modest house with £200,000 value will have a rates bill of £2,000.

Voodoomelon

It's swings and roundabouts. Some things are cheaper, other things are much the same or more expensive. Property prices around the border have gone up quite a bit in the last 12 months, Newry area specifically.

Note that on a Rep of Ireland salary in euro, the banks will limit how much they lend you for a mortgage, mate just went through same. You'll also need a larger deposit.

I agree regarding the wealth divide, there is staggering wealth and deprivation in the North. They also run a constant deficit with a huge reliance on a bloated public sector and a large reliance on welfare.


With so much divide at government level, right down to community level, it's not somewhere i'd aspire to move to. And i'm 15km away.

Charles Babbage

A Lamb Named Miltiades! wrote: »

It's probably not been an option until now.

Working from home gives us the freedom to live anywhere we want, even the most inhospitable, derelict places, such as Northern Ireland.

House prices in Northern Ireland are at least 25% cheaper than in the Republic. You can earn a southern salary and get an NHS. The cost of living is so much cheaper. The benefits are immense.

We are currently looking at properties in Co. Down, I wonder why more Irish people haven't looked to the North as a convenient, cheaper place to relocate?

Certainly it is an option and South Armagh and South Down are beautiful places with property prices less than closer to Dublin. The NHS is cheap and provides service accordingly. There isn't quite as good rural broadband and of course the rates bill of £1000+ is more than the total of any charges in the 26 counties.

By the time your pension falls due the national territory will have been re-integrated.

Adyx

I wouldn't like to have to learn a new language to be honest.

dxhound2005

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Don't forget the very high Property Tax on Family Homes.

We spend 1,800 euro on health insurance, and I don't know how much we spend on bins, about 250 euro, but we have done the sums; it's still cheaper!

A Lamb Named Miltiades!

A Lamb Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Not as far as I am aware,

Our salaries will be taxed in Dublin, we need to go there once every two weeks -- max. No problem.

You'll need to spend 183 days in the Republic for tax purposes

dxhound2005

You have a fairly modest abode. A £400K family home in Newry and Mourne will set you back £3,460 Family Home Tax a year. That is out of your earned income.

zambrotta11

[Deleted User] wrote: »

You'll need to spend 183 days in the Republic for tax purposes

But there is a double taxation agreement with Ireland and the UK so you can just declare your earnings to HRMC and you don't have to pay tax again. I know loads of people doing it

iopener

I'm a dub that's moved to Warrenpoint, its a nice town, very busy seaside spot. Our side of the house if you know what I mean, cost of living is a lot cheaper than the south everybody knows , that. There's a fair few southern people living in Warrenpoint. Property rates can be very expensive, but gp visits and prescription are free (waiting times can be a couple of days ).its swings and roundabouts, best situation is to have a southern wage and northern cost of living . I went out for the champions league final the local was £3.60 for a pint Heineken

Jeremy Beagle

Jeremy Beagle wrote: »

You'll need to spend 183 days in the Republic for tax purposes

Mmm, I don't think so. We are both entitled to UK passports. We will get them if needs be, or I'll keep some official letter in the glove comaprtment.

You gonna squeal on me?

dd973

Hear hear, get those demographics shifted.

jmlad2020

Let's all move to N.Ireland lads before the DUP find out. Then vote for a united Ireland. Majority vote.

I would consider moving to border regions of the North or somewhere like Derry or Rathlin Island.

I don't think I would want to go too deep away from the Republic.

dd973

dd973 wrote: »

Hear hear, get those demographics shifted.

We are both protestants, but can still infiltrate. Might join a local DUP Cumann to disrupt the craic.

Vestiapx

gmisk wrote: »

Does it? I might have missed the civil wars...I was born there in 1981...

Tbh I would feel a lot safer in NI than most places in ROI

I'm the opposite .

dxhound2005

Milk is cheap, but butter is expensive.

Charles Babbage

A Lamb Named Miltiades! wrote: »

We spend 1,800 euro on health insurance, and I don't know how much we spend on bins, about 250 euro, but we have done the sums; it's still cheaper!

Yes, but you get some added value for the health insurance.

Sunny Disposition

Lives in the north years ago, wouldn’t necessarily recommend it for southerners. It’s a very divided place and who needs that in their life. Business still brings me to Belfast, but visiting it is enough for me. It’s probably a bit different if you grew up there and don’t see the division as uncomfortable.

A Lamb Named Miltiades!

A Lamb Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Not as far as I am aware,

Our salaries will be taxed in Dublin, we need to go there once every two weeks -- max. No problem.

Some parts of the North are stunning. The properties you can buy up here would cost 25% more, as standard. Sometimes they are half the price.

Lads, come up here, the value is nuts.

Have you already moved? “Up here”?

You are from Tipp, right? Tipp is cheap as is much of the midlands.

A Lamb Named Miltiades!

A Lamb Named Miltiades! wrote: »

Mmm, I don't think so. We are both entitled to UK passports. We will get them if needs be, or I'll keep some official letter in the glove comaprtment.

You gonna squeal on me?

Where are you hoping to register for tax purposes? If it’s the U.K., great - get the passport. Or don’t because you don’t need one to live in the U.K. however your Irish company might worry about employees living in the U.K. as they have tax and prsi obligations. That said I’ve worked with people who came from Belfast.

All this is moot if you are a contractor.

Charles Babbage

Charles Babbage wrote: »

Yes, but you get some added value for the health insurance.

Probably still better off on the NHS tbh. No excess and their ideas of long waiting lists are laughable. I've been waiting 6vmontgs for a routine referral. I know what I need, my go knows what I need but I have to wait and give someone 200 quid so he can concur. Whenever he gets a chance that is.
Down here we get extra value by paying extra so the bucket of ****e doesn't have a hole in it. Up there they don't have to carry the bucket of ****e everywhere.

Charles Babbage

Deleted User wrote: »

Probably still better off on the NHS tbh. No excess and their ideas of long waiting lists are laughable. .

Have you actually looked at the NI waiting lists or are you just guessing?

https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/articles/outpatient-waiting-times


three quarters of people waiting more than a year for ENT does not sound like Nirvana to me.

KyussB

Things have changed a bit due to lack of construction during the pandemic, but if you do your research you can get a house in a good area for about half the cost of an equivalently good area down South.

Perfect place to duck out the housing crisis, if you have the job flexibility - but you might be waiting a decade for the housing crisis to be sorted, if ever, if you plan to move back eventually.

It's a different tax/employment-law jurisdiction, though - and the UK has badly ballsed up things for contractors, lately - so you have to talk to a financial advisor about work in NI/UK, before considering it (as in: this is mandatory, imo).

You have to do your research on good vs bad areas (same with Dub, really), you would need to create a new language exclusively composed of scatalogical/graphic-reproductive-system-dysfunction references, to find words for adequately describing politics in NI - but that's ok, most places on the island are shitholes in their own unique way anyway, this ones just its own different type of (much more affordable) shithole - which is not necessarily worse than Dub or anywhere else, just a different mix of good/bad.

mfceiling

Darc19 wrote: »

Hope you don't have children - children's allowance is way way lower.

Hope you don't become unemployed. - Job seekers allowance is about £75

Hope you don't just qualify for basic pension. Way lower too.

And don't forget the rates bill. Even a modest house with £200,000 value will have a rates bill of £2,000.

Nope. I've a house worth £125k and the rates bill is never more than £700....less if you pay early

murpho999

gmisk wrote: »

Does it? I might have missed the civil wars...I was born there in 1981...

Tbh I would feel a lot safer in NI than most places in ROI

Where would you feel unsafe in ROI?

The reality is that the whole island is a remarkably safe place.

This notion of places being unsafe annoys me. Try going to some places in the US or Central America to discover what unsafe means.

Charles Babbage

Charles Babbage wrote: »

Have you actually looked at the NI waiting lists or are you just guessing?

https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/articles/outpatient-waiting-times


three quarters of people waiting more than a year for ENT does not sound like Nirvana to me.

On the public list here I was waiting 4 years for an ENT referral and got a call asking if I wanted to stay on the list. I said yes. A year later I rang around and apparently no-one even knows where the list is. Still never heard back about it 8 years later so maybe I'm still on it?
Privately (pre-covid) it took 5 months for me to see a consultant and another almost 3 to get an appointment for a minor operation.
Currently waiting 3 months for a different referral and still haven't heard anything back. That's while we pay the same amount per person for the HSE as the UK pays for the NHS and I pay €2k+ per year for insurance.
The NHS is by no means perfect but they would get quite a shock if they had to put up with what passes for a health service down here. Having to wait a couple of days for a GP appointment, can you imagine!? :pac: Then not having to pay for whatever prescription you're given. God love them.

All that said there's plenty of other reasons I wouldn't be in a hurry to move north. Sometimes I look at the houses 5 miles away and the car I could drive for a tiny amount but there's plenty of ahem, cultural downsides.

NIMAN

Charles Babbage wrote: »

Have you actually looked at the NI waiting lists or are you just guessing?

https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/articles/outpatient-waiting-times


three quarters of people waiting more than a year for ENT does not sound like Nirvana to me.

Don't believe the hype about the NHS, especially in NI.

It is a system in a mess. Waiting lists are terrible and CV19 will only have set it back even further.

Yes, its handy for a free appt with your GP, and there is free prescriptions in the North, but its generally poor and in decline. A lot of people still have private health insurance in the North too, and if the NHS was so great, there would be no need.

My own father died whilst waiting on an operation.

irish_goat

Charles Babbage wrote: »

three quarters of people waiting more than a year for ENT does not sound like Nirvana to me.

I'm waiting 5 years for ENT. Been told recently they currently working through the 2015 list.

irish_goat

irish_goat wrote: »

I'm waiting 5 years for ENT. Been told recently they currently working through the 2015 list.

Damn, last I heard from them was 2014 so looks like they just went ahead and took me off the list, bastards. :pac:

seamus

zambrotta11 wrote: »

But there is a double taxation agreement with Ireland and the UK so you can just declare your earnings to HRMC and you don't have to pay tax again. I know loads of people doing it

I think that only applies to the individual.

The issue for employers is that if they hire someone in another jurisdiction as a full-time employee, then they may be required to legally register in that jurisdiction and pay local taxes and rates.
You can get around it by "quitting" and being re-hired as an independent contractor (losing all your employment protections), but the notion of upping sticks and leaving Ireland while keeping your current job isn't that straightforward.

There are lovely bits of NI, think of having all the advantages of living by the coast with mountains behind you, a hiking swimming lifestyle mines the property prices such an area would have down here and a lot less talk about 'life style' and less food truck.

OEP

mariaalice wrote: »

There are lovely bits of NI, think of having all the advantages of living by the coast with mountains behind you, a hiking swimming lifestyle mines the property prices such an area would have down here and a lot less talk about 'life style' and less food truck.

Most of the west coast of Ireland can allow you live by the coast with mountains behind you

OEP

OEP wrote: »

Most of the west coast of Ireland can allow you live by the coast with mountains behind you

The place I am familiar with it feels different, the coast and mountains but at the same time, it's just a place people live and work in, as I said much less of the 'lifestyle' and much cheaper property prices.

I am not suggesting anyone move to Newry but look at prices.

https://www.propertypal.com/ashgrove-heights-newry/d2985

Newry has some top-rated schools and you would have the NHS.

NIMAN

mariaalice wrote: »

I am not suggesting anyone move to Newry but look at prices.

https://www.propertypal.com/ashgrove-heights-newry/d2985

Newry has some top-rated schools and you would have the NHS.

.... and again with the NHS!

Do Republic residents think the NHS in NI is some sort of 5star, private health insurance policy type deal? Like you have a condition or illness and they take you in the next day to sort it?

TheWonderLlama

how would a mortgage work if you are working in a different jurisdiction? might be a problem.

NIMAN

TheWonderLlama wrote: »

how would a mortgage work if you are working in a different jurisdiction? might be a problem.

Loads of NI workers would live in Donegal, and other border counties.
I was one of them.

I'm sure it's manageable.

A Lamb Named Miltiades!

A Lamb Named Miltiades! wrote: »

It's probably not been an option until now.

Working from home gives us the freedom to live anywhere we want, even the most inhospitable, derelict places, such as Northern Ireland.

House prices in Northern Ireland are at least 25% cheaper than in the Republic. You can earn a southern salary and get an NHS. The cost of living is so much cheaper. The benefits are immense.

We are currently looking at properties in Co. Down, I wonder why more Irish people haven't looked to the North as a convenient, cheaper place to relocate?

Living in a different country, outside of the EU, with frankly a bizarre political regime?

Yes! That sounds like a great idea! (yes this is sarcasm)

Anytime Ive been in Belfast in the past 10 years I had a great time and people were friendly and the city itself is lovely, and very clean. Its a great place to go to, and the people are lovely. However, dont assume you can just move there and things will be better.

NIMAN

NIMAN wrote: »

.... and again with the NHS!

Do Republic residents think the NHS in NI is some sort of 5star, private health insurance policy type deal? Like you have a condition or illness and they take you in the next day to sort it?

No of course not, but the fact that it's free at the point is use is a big difference i.e it's not 60 euro to see a GP, the NHS is not perfect. Its a balance there is council tax in NI on the other had school book are free in IN a couple of hundred euro each year here and so on.

Also no in Aldi in NI.

NIMAN

mariaalice wrote: »

No of course not, but the fact that it's free at the point is use is a big difference i.e it's not 60 euro to see a GP, the NHS is not perfect. Its a balance there is council tax in NI on the other had school book are free in IN a couple of hundred euro each year here and so on.

As someone who used to live in NI, and who works in it now and visits it regularly, I would agree that its a cheaper place to live.

But each jurisdiction has its advantages and disadvantages.

Yes the fact that the NHS is free at point of use, and prescriptions are free is great. But try getting an appointment with a GP up there. My GP is still in NI, and I could be waiting a minimum of 3 weeks. Down here, my wife could get an appointment tomorrow if she called now. GPs in the North are clogged up with moaning, work-shy, perpetually sick people. A lot of them have not much wrong with them (I'm sure the same could be said of the Souths GP offices with medical card holders). If it was a tenner to see a GP in the North, a thing I have always advocated, then the waiting rooms would thin out dramatically.

Politically of course its a real sh1thole. At least in the South, politics is about the economy, jobs, health, education. You know, real world things. In the North politics is about religion and sectarianism first, and everything else second. Everything politically is on green and orange lines. There are loads of issues that should be uniting both communities, but they are too thran to actually do this, preferring to continue old battles going back to a time when many of the currentl population weren't even born.

NIMAN

NIMAN wrote: »

.... and again with the NHS!

Do Republic residents think the NHS in NI is some sort of 5star, private health insurance policy type deal? Like you have a condition or illness and they take you in the next day to sort it?

No-one thinks it's perfect but again compared to down here it's incredible. I have health insurance but it's 60 quid out of pocket (get 30 back later) for the GP, couple of times a year I'm out ~100 quid for medication. Dentist costs a good lot more. 200 out of pocket for a consultant (get half back). Finally get the treatment you know you need and the doctor knows you need and there's often an excess. Or you have to spend a few hours checking which hospital won't have an excess or is covered on your insurance and is it worth going the extra 45 minutes away to save 50/100/200 quid.
A year's wait up there is considered horrendous but down here without going private you'd love to wait "over a year" for many referrals. I'd love if I could ring up for an appointment this afternoon with my GP, occasionally I've been able to see one of the other doctors in the practice at short notice (next day) but usually there's a wait. Again, while paying for it.
I'd agree with the nominal fee for a GP up there, would make a massive difference and relieve an awful lot of the pressure.

The only "serious" treatment I actually got on the public system took 4 or 5 years (teen years are fuzzy :P) to get the procedure I obviously needed. And I had to travel to Omagh for it.